Climate Change Law: The UNFCCC, Kyoto and Paris, India's NDCs, Carbon Markets, Green Credits and the Right against the Adverse Effects of Climate Change

Climate change is the defining environmental problem of this century and the hardest for law to handle. Its causes are spread across every economy and every household, its effects fall hardest on those who contributed least, and its timescale runs across generations. Climate change law is the body of international treaties, national statutes, regulations, market mechanisms and judicial decisions that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), cope with the effects (adaptation), and allocate responsibility and resources fairly (climate justice). For India, it means reconciling development and poverty reduction with a global carbon budget, and it has recently acquired a constitutional dimension through the Supreme Court's recognition of a right against the adverse effects of climate change.

1. Climate Change: Legal Meaning and Core Concepts

The legal definition focuses on human-induced change, which is why the law targets human activities. The key legal issues are: who must reduce emissions and by how much; who pays for adaptation and for damage already caused; how to share clean technology; how to verify and trade emission reductions; and whether individuals can hold States and companies responsible in court.

1.1 Greenhouse gases and global warming

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) trap heat in the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol basket covers carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride and (from 2013) nitrogen trifluoride. Gases are compared by their global warming potential and expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). Global warming is the rise in average global surface temperature, now about 1.1 to 1.3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels according to the IPCC, driving heatwaves, erratic monsoons, glacier melt, sea-level rise and extreme events. Ozone-depleting substances are regulated separately by the Montreal Protocol, whose Kigali Amendment (2016), ratified by India in 2021, phases down hydrofluorocarbons.

1.2 Mitigation, adaptation and resilience

Mitigation means reducing emissions or enhancing sinks (forests, soils, oceans): renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric mobility, fuel switching, afforestation and carbon pricing. Adaptation means adjusting natural and human systems to actual or expected climate effects: heat action plans, drought-resistant crops, coastal protection, flood forecasting and climate-proof infrastructure. Climate resilience is the capacity of a community or system to absorb, recover from and transform after climate shocks. Mitigation tackles the cause; adaptation and resilience manage the consequences.

1.3 Climate justice and loss and damage

Climate justice recognises that climate change is an ethical and political issue as well as an environmental one. Rich industrialised countries are responsible for most historical emissions; poor countries and communities, and future generations, bear most of the harm. Climate justice demands fair sharing of the remaining carbon budget, finance and technology from developed to developing countries, protection of vulnerable groups, and a just transition for workers in fossil fuel sectors.

Loss and damage refers to the impacts that cannot be avoided by mitigation or adaptation: lives lost, homes washed away, islands submerged, cultures displaced. Article 8 of the Paris Agreement recognises loss and damage, building on the Warsaw International Mechanism (2013). At COP27 (Sharm el-Sheikh, 2022) Parties agreed to establish a Fund for responding to Loss and Damage, operationalised at COP28 (Dubai, 2023), though pledges remain small relative to need. Paris expressly states that Article 8 does not involve or provide a basis for liability or compensation.

2. The International Climate Regime

2.1 The UNFCCC

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in May 1992, opened for signature at the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992, and entered into force on 21 March 1994. It has near-universal membership. Its objective (Article 2) is to stabilise GHG concentrations 'at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system', within a time frame that allows ecosystems to adapt, food production not to be threatened, and economic development to proceed sustainably. Article 3 sets out principles: equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, the precautionary approach, and sustainable development. Article 4 sets commitments; developed countries (Annex I) were to take the lead, and the richest (Annex II) to provide finance and technology. The Conference of the Parties (COP) meets annually.

2.2 The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted on 11 December 1997 and in force from 16 February 2005, set legally binding, quantified emission reduction targets for developed countries (Annex B), averaging about five per cent below 1990 levels in the first commitment period (2008 to 2012). Developing countries, including India, had no binding targets. It introduced three flexibility mechanisms: International Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation, and the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which projects in developing countries earned certified emission reductions that developed countries could use. India hosted a very large number of CDM projects. The Doha Amendment (2012) set a second period (2013 to 2020). Kyoto's weaknesses were that the United States never ratified it, Canada withdrew, and major emerging economies had no targets.

2.3 The Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement, adopted at COP21 on 12 December 2015 and in force from 4 November 2016, replaced Kyoto's top-down model with a bottom-up one in which every Party sets its own targets. Its key provisions are:

• Article 2: holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, increasing adaptive capacity, and making finance flows consistent with low-emission development; implemented reflecting equity and CBDR-RC, in the light of different national circumstances;
• Article 4: each Party shall prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions, updated every five years, each representing a progression and its highest possible ambition; the obligation is procedural (to have and pursue NDCs), not to achieve them;
• Article 5: conservation of sinks, including REDD+;
• Article 6: voluntary cooperative approaches and carbon markets;
• Article 7: a global goal on adaptation and national adaptation plans;
• Article 8: loss and damage;
• Articles 9 to 11: finance, technology transfer and capacity building from developed to developing countries;
• Article 13: an enhanced transparency framework for reporting and review;
• Article 14: a global stocktake every five years (the first, at COP28 in 2023, called for 'transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems' and tripling renewable capacity by 2030); and
• Article 15: a facilitative, non-punitive compliance committee.

2.4 Recent developments

At COP29 (Baku, 2024), Parties adopted a New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance of at least USD 300 billion a year by 2035, with a call to scale up to USD 1.3 trillion from all sources, and finalised the rules for Article 6 carbon markets. COP30 was held in Belem, Brazil in November 2025, where countries were expected to present new NDCs for 2035. On 23 July 2025, the International Court of Justice delivered a unanimous advisory opinion on the obligations of States in respect of climate change, holding that States have binding duties under the climate treaties and customary international law (including the duty to prevent significant harm and to exercise due diligence), that 1.5 degrees is the primary temperature goal, and that breach of these duties can give rise to State responsibility. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (2024) similarly held that GHG emissions are marine pollution under UNCLOS.

3. Nationally Determined Contributions and India

An NDC is a country's self-chosen climate plan under Article 4 of Paris. India's successive NDCs are:

India's NDCs are framed in terms of emission intensity (emissions per unit of GDP), not absolute caps, reflecting its status as a developing country with low per capita emissions. India reports that it reduced emission intensity by about 36 per cent between 2005 and 2020 and crossed 50 per cent non-fossil installed capacity in 2025, well ahead of its 2030 targets. The NDCs also emphasise adaptation, the LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) movement, and the need for finance and technology from developed countries. Domestically, the National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008), with its eight national missions (solar, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, Himalayan ecosystem, green India, sustainable agriculture and strategic knowledge), and State Action Plans provide the policy framework.

3.1 Net-zero commitment: legal and policy context

At COP26 (Glasgow, 2021), India announced the Panchamrit and a target of net-zero emissions by 2070. It submitted a Long-Term Low Emission Development Strategy in November 2022. Net zero means balancing remaining emissions with removals. India's net-zero target is a policy commitment, not yet enshrined in a statute, unlike countries such as the United Kingdom, which legislated net zero by 2050. India has instead used sectoral laws (the Energy Conservation Act, the Electricity Act, the EPA) and missions (such as the National Green Hydrogen Mission, 2023) to move towards it.

3.2 Common but differentiated responsibilities in climate law

CBDR-RC holds that all States share responsibility for the climate, but their obligations differ according to their historical contribution and capabilities. It shaped the UNFCCC's Annex structure and Kyoto's binding targets for developed countries alone. Paris retains the principle but qualifies it with 'in the light of different national circumstances', making differentiation self-determined rather than based on fixed lists. India has consistently invoked CBDR-RC and equity to resist absolute caps and to demand finance and technology, while taking ambitious voluntary action.

3.3 Climate finance and technology transfer

Climate finance refers to public and private funds for mitigation and adaptation. Developed countries promised USD 100 billion a year by 2020 (Copenhagen, 2009), a goal reported as met only in 2022; the NCQG of COP29 raised it to USD 300 billion a year by 2035. Key channels are the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility, the Adaptation Fund and the Loss and Damage Fund. India has criticised the NCQG as inadequate. Technology transfer under Article 4(5) of the UNFCCC and Article 10 of Paris is implemented through the Technology Mechanism (Technology Executive Committee and Climate Technology Centre and Network); intellectual property and cost remain barriers.

4. Carbon Markets

4.1 Carbon markets and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement

A carbon market puts a price on emissions by allowing reductions to be measured, certified and traded. Article 6.2 allows Parties to transfer internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) bilaterally, with corresponding adjustments to avoid double counting. Article 6.4 establishes a centralised Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, the successor to the CDM, supervised by a UN body. Article 6.8 covers non-market approaches. The rules were largely completed at COP26 and COP29. India has notified a list of activities eligible for Article 6.2 cooperation (such as green hydrogen, offshore wind and storage), while reserving most low-cost reductions for its own NDC.

4.2 Energy Conservation Act and carbon markets

The Energy Conservation Act, 2001 created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme (2012), under which energy-intensive units trade energy saving certificates. The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022 empowered the Central Government to specify a carbon credit trading scheme and to issue carbon credit certificates, to prescribe a minimum share of non-fossil energy consumption for designated consumers, and to set an Energy Conservation and Sustainable Building Code for large residential buildings. This gave India's carbon market a statutory basis.

4.3 The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 and the Indian Carbon Market

The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme, 2023 (CCTS) was notified on 28 June 2023 and amended in December 2023 to add an offset mechanism. It establishes the Indian Carbon Market, with this governance:

• a National Steering Committee for the Indian Carbon Market, co-chaired by the Ministries of Power and Environment, which oversees the market;
• the Bureau of Energy Efficiency as the administrator, setting targets, methodologies and trajectories;
• the Grid Controller of India as the registry;
• the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission as the regulator of trading, which takes place on power exchanges; and
• accredited carbon verification agencies that verify emission reductions.

The CCTS has two components. The compliance mechanism is a compliance carbon market for obligated entities in energy-intensive sectors. The Government notifies GHG emission intensity targets (tonnes of CO2e per unit of product) for each entity. Entities that beat their target receive carbon credit certificates (CCCs); those that miss it must buy CCCs or pay environmental compensation. Targets were notified in October 2025 and January 2026 for sectors including aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali, pulp and paper, petroleum refining, petrochemicals and textiles, covering several hundred units, with compliance years 2025-26 and 2026-27 and trading expected to begin in 2026. The CCTS is an intensity-based baseline-and-credit system, not an absolute cap-and-trade system.

The offset mechanism allows non-obligated entities to voluntarily register projects that reduce, remove or avoid emissions (for example, renewable energy, afforestation, methane capture) under approved methodologies, and to earn CCCs after verification. One carbon credit certificate represents one tonne of CO2 equivalent reduced or removed. CCCs are recorded in the registry, traded on exchanges, and surrendered by obligated entities for compliance.

5. The Green Credit Programme and the Green Credit Rules, 2023

The Green Credit Rules, 2023, notified on 12 October 2023 under the Environment (Protection) Act, create a market-based mechanism to incentivise voluntary environmental actions beyond carbon. Green credits are earned for activities such as tree plantation, water management, sustainable agriculture, waste management, air pollution reduction, mangrove conservation, ecomark-labelled products and sustainable buildings. The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education is the administrator, maintains the registry and develops methodologies, with a steering committee overseeing the programme.

The tree plantation methodology, the first to be operationalised, allotted degraded forest land to companies and individuals for plantation. Critics feared it would allow companies to substitute cheap plantations for genuine ecosystem restoration and to use credits for compensatory afforestation obligations. In 2025, the methodology was revised: credits are now issued only after five years, if the land shows more than forty per cent canopy cover, at one credit per surviving tree, after third-party verification; credits are non-tradable (except within a corporate group) and may be exchanged once against compensatory afforestation, CSR or project-linked obligations. Green credits are distinct from carbon credits under the CCTS, though an activity may generate both.

6. Renewable Energy and Environmental Law

India's energy transition relies on rapid expansion of solar, wind, hydro, green hydrogen and storage. The legal framework includes the Electricity Act, 2003 (renewable purchase obligations, now framed as renewable consumption obligations under the Energy Conservation Act), the Green Energy Open Access Rules, 2022, and schemes for solar parks and rooftop solar. Renewable projects raise their own environmental issues: land acquisition and grazing commons, impacts on birds from overhead transmission lines, desert and grassland ecosystems, and dam impacts on rivers. Most solar and wind projects are outside the EIA Notification, 2006, which critics consider a gap, while hydroelectric projects require EC.

7. Climate Change and the Constitution

7.1 Climate change and Article 21

The Supreme Court has long read the right to a healthy environment into Article 21 (Subhash Kumar, 1991; Virender Gaur, 1995; M.C. Mehta cases). Ranjitsinh (2024) extends this to climate change. The State's duties under Article 48A (protect and improve the environment) and the citizen's duty under Article 51A(g) support the right. The Court noted that India has no single climate statute, but that this does not mean Indians lack a right against climate harm.

7.2 The right against adverse effects of climate change

The right has several dimensions: health (heatwaves, vector-borne disease), food and water security (erratic monsoon, drought), livelihood (fisheries, agriculture), housing (coastal and flood-prone areas), and equality, because the poor, women, tribal and coastal communities suffer disproportionately. It is a negative right (the State must not aggravate harm) and a positive one (the State must take effective mitigation and adaptation measures). Its practical content is still being developed, but it gives a constitutional anchor to claims for adaptation planning, heat action plans and protection of vulnerable communities.

7.3 Climate litigation in India

Climate litigation in India has been largely indirect: cases on air pollution, forests, coastal regulation and wetlands have climate co-benefits. Direct climate cases include: Gaurav Bansal v. Union of India (NGT, 2015), seeking implementation of the NAPCC, where the Tribunal directed States to implement their action plans; Ridhima Pandey v. Union of India (NGT, 2019), a petition by a nine-year-old seeking climate-proofing of EIA and a carbon budget, dismissed on the ground that climate was covered by existing laws and processes; and Ranjitsinh (2024), which recognised the right. Internationally, the ICJ advisory opinion (2025), the ECtHR's KlimaSeniorinnen judgment (2024) and national cases such as Urgenda (Netherlands, 2019) show the growth of rights-based climate litigation.

8. Climate Change, Biodiversity and Intergenerational Equity

8.1 Climate change and biodiversity

Climate change and biodiversity loss are twin crises. Warming shifts species ranges, bleaches coral reefs, alters monsoon-dependent ecosystems and threatens Himalayan species. Healthy ecosystems in turn store carbon (forests, mangroves, peatlands, seagrasses) and buffer climate shocks. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (2022) and the Paris Agreement's Article 5 on sinks reflect this link. Ranjitsinh shows the tension that can arise when climate solutions (renewable energy) threaten biodiversity, and the need to balance them through careful siting and mitigation.

8.2 Climate change and intergenerational equity

Intergenerational equity holds that each generation holds the earth in trust for future generations and must pass it on in no worse condition. The Supreme Court has recognised it in State of Himachal Pradesh v. Ganesh Wood Products, (1995) 6 SCC 363, and in Goa Foundation v. Union of India (2014) on mineral resources. Climate change is the clearest case: emissions today lock in warming for centuries. The principle underpins net-zero targets, carbon budgets and rights-based climate litigation brought by children, such as Ridhima Pandey in India and Juliana in the United States.

9. Critical Appraisal

The international regime has moved from binding targets for a few (Kyoto) to universal but voluntary pledges (Paris), trading legal force for participation. Current NDCs remain far short of the 1.5 degree pathway, finance flows are inadequate, and loss and damage funding is small. India has taken significant action through intensity targets, rapid renewable growth, a statutory carbon market and green credits, and its courts have recognised a constitutional right against climate harm. Gaps remain: no framework climate law or independent climate council; no binding sectoral carbon budgets; EIA that does not systematically assess climate impacts; and adaptation planning that is uneven across States. The CCTS's intensity-based design and the Green Credit Programme's credibility will be tested in implementation.

10. Related Topics and Provisions